Stand Up/Benefit - a divide across the pond [and elsewhere]....?

[C]

I’ve noticed that Americans seem to prefer Benefit and us Brits, Stand Up. […] Anyone care to prove me wrong .

This is an interesting hypothesis which may be correct

Not a massive sample but let's see what happens.

If you are 'something else' please state where

[I'm not getting involved with - I have a French mother and a Chinese father was born in Spain, brought up in Scotland, went to university in Belgium and now live in Sri Lanka....]






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[C]

Stand Up by a whisker of a gnat's pubic hair






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[Mike Boom]

Hi, I am officially "Something Else" (i.e. New Zealander) and I prefer Benefit

[Walk In My Shadow]

Hi, I'm not a New Zealander and prefer Stand UP.

[Sneelock]

I yam American. I choose "benefit"
I like both but I think the band is really starting to become what I think when I say "jethro tull"

[Matt Wilson]

Stand Up is the better album. Even Ian knows that. I've never heard of more people preferring Benefit.

Then again, I like This Was more than most Tull fans so there's that. Probably just as much as Benefit, for that matter. They're all three great of course.

[Charlie O.]

I'm American and I love them pretty much equally. There was a time, though, when I was much younger, when Benefit was my favorite Tull album.

It might be worth noting that Benefit is the only Tull album aside from the Living In The Past comp where the US track line-up differed from its UK counterpart.

With You There To Help Me
Nothing To Say
Inside
Son
For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

To Cry You A Song
A Time For Everything?
Teacher [album version]
Play In Time
Sossity; You're A Woman

Dropping "Alive And Well And Living In", putting "Inside" in the middle of Side 1 and "Teacher" in the middle of Side 2 results in a subtly brighter, less dour album.

[ChrisB]

I love Stand Up, I like Benefit, and I admire John Bercow

[C]

It might be worth noting that Benefit is the only Tull album aside from the Living In The Past comp where the track line-up differed from its UK counterpart.

With You There To Help Me
Nothing To Say
Inside
Son
For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

To Cry You A Song
A Time For Everything?
Teacher [album version]
Play In Time
Sossity; You're A Woman

Dropping "Alive And Well And Living In", putting "Inside" in the middle of Side 1 and "Teacher" in the middle of Side 2 results in a subtly brighter, less dour album.

Very true Chas

Very true.

Teacher is a superb track (the U.K single version varies from the U.S album version).

In the UK, Teacher was part of a 'double A sided' single with Witch's Promise and I was always disappointed it wasn't on the album.

At the time I was unaware there was a UK and USA version of Benefit





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[C]

I admire John Bercow

He did brilliantly this afternoon





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[C]

Hi, I'm not a New Zealander and prefer Stand UP.

A vote from France

[Quaco]

I'm American and I love them pretty much equally. There was a time, though, when I was much younger, when Benefit was my favorite Tull album.

This, to a tee.

It might be worth noting that Benefit is the only Tull album aside from the Living In The Past comp where the US track line-up differed from its UK counterpart.

With You There To Help Me
Nothing To Say
Inside
Son
For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

To Cry You A Song
A Time For Everything?
Teacher [album version]
Play In Time
Sossity; You're A Woman

Dropping "Alive And Well And Living In", putting "Inside" in the middle of Side 1 and "Teacher" in the middle of Side 2 results in a subtly brighter, less dour album.

Listening to the US version all my life, I still think of "Inside" as being really important to that run at the end of side 1. But I would gladly swap "Alive and Well and Living In" for "Teacher"; the latter never really fit, to my ears.

[Mike Boom]

Benefit has the added, errr ... benefit ... of having John Evan on piano.

Plus I love Martins guitar sound on it, and Ian's singing is fantastic - the whole sound is just way "heavier" (man) than Stand Up. You can hear they are well on the way to the sound of Aqualung.

[C]

Benefit has the added, errr ... benefit ... of having John Evan on piano.

The original vinyl LP cover stated virtually that - soemthing like 'John Evan for your Benefit'

Not sure subsequent CD releases did the same...





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[Mike Boom]

Piano and Organ played by John Evan ... for our benefit.

[Quaco]

I'm guessing that the "divide across the pond" is something along the lines of Stand Up's folk aspect being more interesting British people, and US people preferring Benefit as it seems to approach the more rock-oriented Aqualung...?

For me, there are great songs on both, especially towards the end of the album sides, oddly. "Back to the Family", "Look Into the Sun", "Reason for Waiting", "Alive and Well...", "Son", "For Michael Collins...", "Inside", and "Sossity..." are the top-notch of Jethro Tull songs to me -- and are all better than "A New Day Yesterday" and "Nothing Is Easy", which despite being on the earlier album seem to presage "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath" as "potboilers" and "live favorites". I voted for Benefit not because it's more or less folky or English, but because the side openers are better: somehow "To Cry You a Song" and "With You There to Help Me" both have that same bittersweet feeling as the acoustic tracks.

Probably a confusing rationale, but you may not have read it anyway, so it's OK!

[Spock!]

Stand Up by a whisker of a gnat's pubic hair






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Surely closer than that!

[toomanyhatz]

The Americans I know generally prefer Stand Up.

So as not to be a traitor to my country, I vote Stand Up and impeach Trump.

[Charlie O.]

Listening to the US version all my life, I still think of "Inside" as being really important to that run at the end of side 1. But I would gladly swap "Alive and Well and Living In" for "Teacher"; the latter never really fit, to my ears.

I know what you mean - thematically, it is out of place. But I'm not sure I would have thought about it had I never learned that the UK album didn't have it. There's something very satisfying, musically, about the abrupt ending of "A Time For Everything?" dropping straight into "Teacher". And "Alive And Well..." would never work on Side 2.

[Quaco]

Listening to the US version all my life, I still think of "Inside" as being really important to that run at the end of side 1. But I would gladly swap "Alive and Well and Living In" for "Teacher"; the latter never really fit, to my ears.

I know what you mean - thematically, it is out of place. But I'm not sure I would have thought about it had I never learned that the UK album didn't have it. There's something very satisfying, musically, about the abrupt ending of "A Time For Everything?" dropping straight into "Teacher". And "Alive And Well..." would never work on Side 2.

I agree with what you say. But I always thought "Teacher" was out of place -- or stood alone -- because it appeared on the US Living in the Past. (Why? We already had it.)